This archive report was first published on 27 December 2019.
Netanyahu Won Over His Party. Can He Win Over Israel? ¶
December 27, 2019
Jerusalem — After a bribery charge and two failed attempts to form a government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long rule over Israel seemed set to expire. However, in his first real test since his indictment last month, Netanyahu crushed a lone rival, Gideon Saar, winning 72.5 percent of the vote in the Likud party primary election.
Netanyahu's landslide victory has reinvigorated his campaign ahead of the next general election in early March, but his legal troubles and divisive politics may hinder his ability to win over the country. The election will be the third in a year, an unprecedented situation as a deeply polarized Israel struggles to form a government after inconclusive elections in April and September.
Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, noted that the primary injected enthusiasm and got the Likud machine working, but it remains to be seen whether the buzz can be maintained over months. Netanyahu's support has softened after his indictment, but not enough to change the unforgiving math that has paralyzed the Israeli government for the past year.
Mr. Netanyahu is accused of trading official favors worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Israeli media moguls for illicit gifts of cigars, champagne, and jewelry, as well as positive news coverage. He has denied any wrongdoing, casting himself as the victim of a witch hunt by a left-wing elite that he says dominates the news media and has pressed the law enforcement authorities to pursue criminal investigations against him.
For his loyalists, the primary triumph clears a possible path ahead for Netanyahu. Miki Zohar, Likud's chief whip in Parliament, said on television that the result is basically telling Netanyahu that his Likud voters want him to request parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Netanyahu has a few days left before the deadline for submitting such a request, though it would likely only be voted on if and when a new government is formed after the election. Approval would depend on Netanyahu's being able to muster a majority of 61 in the 120-seat Parliament.
That will mean getting out every last Likud and right-wing voter. In Jerusalem's bustling Mahane Yehuda market, an old Likud bastion, some of the vendors reverently display fading portraits of Likud's founder, Menachem Begin, a stickler for the rule of law, in their shops.
One of them, Avraham Levy, 69, who voted for Netanyahu in the primary, said it was 'not easy to find someone like him in our generation' as he sold fruit on Friday. He dismissed the charges against Netanyahu, saying, 'It's not bribery in my eyes so long as he didn't take money.' Crediting the prime minister with the country's strong economy and security, he said, 'You don't exchange a horse for a donkey. We have a good horse.'
Other long-time Likudniks were not so sure. Iyuv Levy, 55, another fruit vendor, said he had had enough of it all but did not know where to go from there.
